Stumbling stones / Stolpersteine - Video Project

 

 

 

-Agnes, Erica, Michael, Hanna, Jay

The Grande Hotel of Beira, Mozambique

The Grande Hotel of Beira, Mozambique

The Grande Hotel Of Beira in Mozambique was constructed in 1955 from the ruling Portuguese Estado Nuovo regime, as a need for the Portuguese VIP that wanted to visit Beira, this African Costal Port. It had 130 rooms, an Olympic swimming pool, restaurants and dance halls in an area of 21 000 square meters, making this the biggest hotel in Southern Africa at that time. The design used was the Art Deco which reminded guests the Portuguese 30’-40’s building style. However, the Hotel didn’t profit anything in eight years of operation, because locals could not afford to go there and the VIP of Portugal were guest of the state and were not charged for their accommodation in the Grande Hotel of Beira. As we mentioned above, this hotel closed its doors in 1963 but only some parts were still running, like the Olympic Pool where the Mozambican Swimming team was trained or for organizing official state weddings.  Finally, in 1975 Mozambique won its independence from Portugal, and the Grande hotel purpose changed drastically where the Frelimo Government used the basement as a prison for the enemies of the state. After 2 years the civil war created a lot of chaos and in 1981 Beira was declared a neutral zone, so the outcome was a flux of refugees to the Grande Hotel of Beira. Even though the civil war ended in 1992, the population at the hotel continues to grow. So far, no one seems to be responsible for that building which is left to the hands of refugees and in the hands of homeless people. Their financial and social status doesn’t allow us to take care of the building, which in this case is getting worse day by day. Its rooms do not have windows or doors, iron and other valuable materials were robbed in order to profit some money out of them. The water of the swimming pool is used to wash clothes and for bathing, which creates high level of water pollution. Today the building is in danger of destruction, which might cause the death of children living there or the spread of any infectious disease, due to the lack of hygiene and proper living conditions. The future is still too vague, because many questions cannot get answers. Which country should take care of this building if the land is Portuguese? Where are the habitants of Grande hotel going to live if the building will be reconstructed or taken by the state?

 Most of the information was found in “The Grande Hotel of Beira, Mozambique”, May 21^st, 2013. Found in http://sometimes-interesting.com/2013/05/21/the-grande-hotel-of-beira-mozambique/

Appropriation of the room

As we mention previously, people invading the Hotel made use of the hotel space as they wanted to. As such we can observe people living in the primitive living conditions in what was before the most luxury hotels in the state. From what we saw in the documentary people were living in the worst condition where there were lacking electricity, running water, doors and windows. As quoted from the article in CNN written by Amy Fallon and Mark Tutton: “the telephone booths have been cut off and made into a room, the corridor is the room”. (Fallon, A. and Tutton, M. 2011) Despite their difficult living conditions, habitants of the Hotel seemed quite happy living there, not only because of a shelter but as well as they developed a community, where social interactions and collaborations were not missing. As was said by a tourist in the article mentioned above, “It was like a village within a village. It looked like the perfect social housing project”. Even though, the relationships do not miss in this social community, there are still parts that show the disrespect of the law. If we trace the history of how this people invaded the hotel by not respecting law, explains why now the habitants created and obeyed to their own ‘laws’ and rules. Due to this behavior many risky situation might happen, like robbing, prostitution, drug dealing and unfortunately even killing. As we saw the testimony of a habitant of the Grande Hotel, she experienced the death of her father due to a fight between him and another habitant. The reason was money debts.

Another aspect that we want to touch is the lack of windows and doors in the rooms. If we see the building, the lack of doors and windows reflects a safe state where everything is known to anybody, creating in this way a safe psychological state for the community, resembling to a tribe.

It is hard to imagine life in this hotel today, because building is unsafe and an eyesore. It will be better if this building will be demolished, but there a re several reasons why it can’t be done anytime soon. First, is the city of Beira does not own the land and cannot force the action. Second, the cost to raze the property is beyond anyone’s budget. Demolition of the hotel would require relocation of thousands of refugees to alternate housing. But as this building is still standing, we don’t want to imagine living in there, as the safety of the residents remains in risk. Parts of the building have started to crumble from decades of salvaging activity and as we know from Internet recourses it is only the matter of time until a floor will collapse. One of the other reasons, why we are not really interested in living there is the consideration that Beira is not a wealthy city; it’s unlikely the government can afford any kind of changes to make city more habitable and hospitable.  

Olta Tuholi, Arda Skllavi and Ulvia Alijeva 

Stolper Steine/Stumbling Stones Project

After doing some brain storming, the Stolper Steine group came up with two ideas for how we'd like to work with some of the questions/thoughts we came up with in our first meeting. The ideas were 1) to ask passers-by in the street if they knew what the Stolper Steine on the sidewalk were, and 2) to clean the Stolper Steine and see what (if any) reactions we produced by doing so.

To prepare, we tried to find the locations of stones in Vienna online, however we were unable to find any lists as to where the various stones are located. The official website as well as other Google searches brought up nothing. Instead, we ended up going back to stones we had noticed ourselves in passing.

On November 5th, armed with paper towels (kitchen roll), a bottle of bronze polisher, and a water bottle, we hit the street. Mariahilferstrasse to be exact. We started at Westbahnhof and walked down hill. It took us a while to find the first set, but we were eventually able to locate a block of nineteen Stolper Steine outside the Thalia bookstore. Interestingly, these stones are not far from one of the apartments in which Adolf Hitler lived while still in Vienna. We were able to ask a couple standing by (actually partly on) the stones if they knew what they were and were told a general history. We then set about cleaning the stones with bronze cleaner while filming ourselves and passers by from a distance.

After cleaning the first set, we continued down the Mariahilferstrasse and came upon a second block of twelve Stolper Steine. The battery of the camera was running low and the position of the stones on the corner made video recording difficult, so we took more pictures while cleaning the second block of stones. Before we began to clean the second block, we asked a woman who was looking at the stones if she knew what they were. She answered that she was "not from here" but was able to figure out from the dates and the list of concentration camps that it had something to do with deportation during the war.

Here is a photo of the stones before they were cleaned. As one can see, they are very dull and dirty.

BEFORE

We cleaned the stones once, however they did not look much better than before they had been cleaned, so we decided to smear the bronze cleaner on the stones and let it work for a few minutes. While cleaning this second set of stones, we noticed that a police officer was watching out activities. He did not approach us and moved on after a few minutes. In this next photo, one can see how black the  bronze cleaner was when we wiped it away.

DURING

After a second cleaning and a rinse, the stones looked much shinier, however it is clear that they are still filthy and it seemed to us that it would take an industrial strength scrubbing to get them to look like new again!

AFTER

While cleaning the stones, we did have many observers, however many people did not even notice us and walked by without glancing over. No one approached us to ask what we were doing. It was an interesting feeling to be cleaning something that so many people don't even notice, even if they pass the spot every day. After we had finished, the group agreed that we felt like we had just done something important - that we had just honored the people listed on the Stolper Steine in a very small way, much like one might clean up and leave a few flowers on a grave site.

Thanks for reading!
Agnes, Erica, Hanna, and Michael

COMING SOON: a short video made while cleaning the stones.

Alterlaa - Sattelite city

Alterlaa is a "sattelite city" just 4 subway stops away from Meidling station. There is six massive apartment houses in this complex! It was build in the 70s, it houses approximately 11.000 people, has over 3000 apartment, swimming pools on the roof and inside, saunas, a youth centre, its own shopping centre, a renter's-union, its own trash-recycling centre, and much more to explore. There is no 13th floor in any building. Sometimes, a man said, there are still "jumpers" from the rooftops. On a Sunday it feels like a calm park outside, and I wondered where these 11.000 people were. Probably having proper Viennese lunch at 1pm. I found a friendly technician who gave me a tour, here is the foto story.